A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, who held the manors of Colham 

 and Edgeware by his wife's right, claimed that his predecessors had had 

 a Thursday market at Uxbridge, which was a member of Colham, and a 

 three days' fair there at the Feast of St. Margaret (12 July), time out of 

 mind. 98 In the same year Edward I granted him a Monday market and 

 a two days' fair at Michaelmas." Edward I also granted a Tuesday 

 market and an eight days' fair at Trinity to the brothers of Holy Trinity 

 of Hounslow; 98 and to Humfry de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, 

 and his wife the countess of Holland, a Monday market and two three 

 days' fairs on St. Andrew's day and the Assumption (29 November and 

 15 August), at Enfield ; 99 and lastly a Tuesday market and a six days' fair 

 at Brentford at the Feast of St. Lawrence (11 August), to the prioress 

 and nuns of St. Helens. 100 These ancient rights were surrendered to 

 Charles I in 1635 by a certain Mr. Valentine Saunders, who then held 

 the manor of Brentford, in return for a grant of a Tuesday market and 

 two fairs to last six days each, beginning on 7 May and I September 

 respectively, for which he was to pay 2os. a year. 101 He also had leave 

 to enlarge on his own ground the market-place, which was too small 

 to contain the concourse of people frequenting the town and passing 

 on the London road. In a charter roll of 4 Edward III there is a grant 

 of a yearly fair lasting seventeen days at Michaelmas at his manor of 

 ' Scrine in com. Mid', to ' francisco de feipo.' 102 I have been quite 

 unable to identify either the manor or its owner. The entry is copied 

 without comment by Palmer in his Index to Markets and Fairs, and from 

 him by the commissioners on Market Rights and Tolls. 



A probably not uncommon institution was a Sunday meat market, 

 held in the churchyard before service at Enfield, for the retention of which 

 ' old and ancient usage ' the queen's tenants and inhabitants of Her 

 Majesty's decayed town of Enfield, in 1586, petitioned Burghley, who 

 was high steward of the manor. 103 The petitioners complained bitterly 

 of the conduct of their minister, Leonard Thickpenny, 'set on we beleeve 

 by the vicar,' who in ' a very outragious manner very evyll beseamynge a 

 man of the churche, in a maddynge mode most ruffynlike ' seized the 

 butcher's meat one Sunday and threw it on the ground, 'most pyttyfull 

 to beholde.' He then in the presence of a great many ' honest poore 

 men ' abused the butcher, threatening to kill him ' if he hanged for it 

 half an hour afterwards.' Later in the forenoon the vicar improved the 

 occasion by preaching on the subject of the ' marquet ' in a ' most 

 mallancolly and angrye vayne.' They have many such sermons, they 

 concluded sadly, so that ' in church they wish themselves at home.' 

 Burghley, it would appear, was minded to allow the market on which the 

 men of Enfield set such store. 



Owen's New Book of Fairs gives a list of seventeen fairs as existing 

 in Middlesex in 1772 : Bow, Beggar's Bush, Brentford (two), Chiswick, 



* Plat, de quo Warr. 476, 22 Edw. I, 1293-4. w Chart. R. 22 Edw. I, No. 23. 



98 Chart. R. 24 Edw. I, No. 21. Ibid. 31 Edw. I, No. 33. 



00 Ibid. 35 Edw. I, No. 49. ' P.R.O. Privy Seal Doc. 10 June, 1 1 Chas. I. 

 1W Chart. R. 4 Edw. Ill, No. 46. " B.M. Lansdowne MS. 47. 



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